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throat G# key

Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2020-04-09 05:52

My Bb R13 was made around the late 60's. A couple years ago it got probably its first full overhaul. Leaks were fixed, keywork was improved, etc.

The work revealed a problem with the key for throat G#. The original key was a little short, and the pad barely reached the hole to cover it - the outside edge of the hole was very near the outside edge of the pad. This was the source of a kind of phantom leak - under pressure, or with a fatiguing spring, it sometimes leaked.

My repair person said this was not terribly out of the ordinary; he'd seen similar things from Buffet before. They have been known for sometimes marginal key work.

He first tried crafting a slightly off-center pad to better cover the hole, but wasn't satisfied with the result. After discussion, he bent the key so that it reached further over the hole. After that it closed with the pad better centered, and also with improved mechanical advantage so the closing force was greater. It seemed to work.

However, in the ensuing year I started squeaking rather often, especially, but not only, in harder left-hand passages. The repair person and I both checked for leaks without finding any. I figured my technique was just going to pot, so I started focusing on that, particularly left hand technique. Among other things I finally started daily practice from a good scale book. The frequency of squeaks went well down, but not completely away.

Self-teaching I've been slow to zoom in on specific causes. The most frequent cause of squeaking is my left index finger brushing that throat G# key enough to slightly raise the pad. Asking myself why, I wonder if lengthening the arch, which had the effect of slightly lowering the key on the hole side of the pivot, didn't also slightly raise the actuator on the other side of the pivot. I might be brushing it more because it's higher off the clarinet. While playing, my finger feels it much of the time.

Maybe, maybe not; by eyeball it's hard to tell. I'm reluctant to alter my current hand and finger position (though I am experimenting with just that) because apart from this problem my technique is coming along pretty well. What I think I'd like is to lower just the actuator side of that key a little bit, while maintaining it's travel distance on either side of the pivot.

Maybe this work could be arranged, though no doubt the repair person is social distancing. I'm leery of trying to bend just that part of the key myself; I might have to reduce the height of the contact post beneath the actuator by some "right" amount as well. Maybe I could, ah, just file down the top of the actuator a little, somehow retaining the basic contact shape and all the other operational aspects of the key. How hard could that be?

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